KARACHI: Pakistan's main stock exchange closed higher on Wednesday, with the benchmark 100-share index of the Karachi Stock Exchange rising 1.33 per cent, or 366.52 points to 27,932.02.

Continued institutional support in Oil stocks and banking sector kept market in bullish trend with index touching almost 28,000 historical level, dealer said.

Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd rose 3.0 per cent to 254 rupees while Nishat Mills Ltd was up 3.22 per cent to 122.25 rupees.

The rupee ended at 98.10/98.15 against the dollar compared to Tuesday's close of 98.20/98.28.

Overnight rates in the money market remained flat at 10.00 per cent.

The country’s plans to issue $500m Euro bonds also boosted sentiments. Senior analyst Samar Iqbal commented that Engro Foods, Engro Fertiliser, OGDC, MCB Bank, Lucky and PSO together added more than 200 points to index gains.

Lower than expected CPI of 8.53pc and Moody’s provisional rating of ‘Caa1’ to the government announced bond offering, helped index to close at yet new high.

Mid cap stocks remained in limelight where LOTCHEM led volume chart with 24m shares.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti agreed that stocks closed at an all time high on renewed foreign interest in blue chip oil and banking stocks ahead of government conducted road shows for $500m foreign inflows via Eurobond and MSCI Frontier Index recomposition.

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